Four injured in shooting; Mardi Gras revelry continues

Share via e-mail

Floats passed down a New Orleans street on Sunday, hours after a shooting on Bourbon Street injured four people.

Associated Press
February 11, 2013

NEW ORLEANS — Gunshots erupted in a crowd of bead-wearing, drink-carrying late-night revelers on Bourbon Street during the countdown to Mardi Gras, wounding four people and sending bystanders running and screaming. Hours later Sunday, though, the same stretch was packed with partiers who said they weren’t letting the violence dampen their fun.

In a video taken by a witness Saturday night and released the next day, the shootings are preceded by footage of people standing shoulder to shoulder in New Orleans’ famed tourist district, with some holding green plastic cups and wearing gaudy hats or masks.

A section of the frame highlighted by police shows people jostling and speaking with angry expressions.

Police said the video depicts an argument involving one of the shooting victims and the suspects. Two men are seen leaving the argument and returning with a third, then approaching the victim as at least one of the suspects begins shooting, according to police.

The shootings wounded two males and two females. One male victim hit in the abdomen, thigh, and pelvis was in guarded condition Sunday after surgery the previous night, New Orleans Police spokesman Frank B. Robertson said.

The second male was shot in the buttocks, one female was shot on the chin and right foot, and the second female was shot on the toe, according to Robertson’s statement.